So I just took my rear fatboy wheel apart. The nipples are standard. Hex head nipples and a nipple washer. That picture makes them look bigger than what they are. So a tubeless install should not be affected by the nipples. Also while I had the rim bare, I weighed it at 767 grams. Not bad.

Yes- basically tape it, put tire on, tube in and inflate- best to let it sit for a while and in warmer temps (not my cold-ass garage). Pop one side, take tube out, put valve stem in, re-seat tire. You can put sauce in then or fill first to set bead. Using the gravity method as in the video helps (basically, inflating with the loose bead side down/ wheel horizontal instead of standing the wheel upright). I still have a lot of leakage the first couple of times after putting sealant in, which happened with foam and, surprisingly, with a split-tube as well, but after airing it up a few times and rolling the sealant into all the leaky spots, it was good to go. Have had it down to 2-3 psi on my Bud without a problem (again, on Holy RD's).

Only time I lost a seal was when the tire was already down to about 3psi and I put it in my rack (Yakima Holdup) and drove home- putting the hook around the tire with the air that low popped the bead. Got it home and aired it up and it re-seated no problem.

BPD131: Great news. Any chance you took any pics while you had it apart?

"There are two kinds of mountain bikers in the world: those who are faster than me, and me."

BPD131: Great news. Any chance you took any pics while you had it apart?

I took a pic of the rim on the scale, but nothing else. When I rebuilt the wheel with the new hub, I also used butted spokes and alloy nipples. The "comp" version uses brass and straight gauge spokes. So it will be lighter. The hub itself was 30-40 grams lighter, spokes and nipples are almost another 60-80 grams. The wheel will be approximately 1/4 pound lighter. And I am gonna go tubeless.

I just set mine up tubeless. It could not have been easier. I bought 4 inch wide tape form Pegasus that someone listed here. I put it on, over lapped a few inches on each side of the valves stem. I then cut excess of edge so it would set in the hookless bead nicely. Inflated with a tube over night at about 20-25 lbs of pressure. Woke up this morning, deflated the tube, one side of bead came off without trying, I tried to make sure the other didn't come off but I don't know if it would matter. I took the tube out of the one bead side and put in a valve stem. I inflated the tire to get beads on again, no problem with that at all. Took out the core and put in sealant of choice, installed the core and inflated. There was one spot at the weld that had some sealant visible, but no problem. Also the core that I used (a Specialized valve stem from my other wheel set, which I do not like) had a little sealant also. I tightened the core down and viola, it works perfectly. OK, now for the caveat, I use a compressor for air ups. I also tried orange seal for the first time and it worked fine, but I do not get a lot of punctures, so it's mainly for sealing tire and minor wheel imperfections. I used way too much sealant, 12 oz. I could get away with 8 easily, I think. I do not know about weight because I was so engrossed in getting it done, I forgot. Gonna go ride the for an hour or so and make sure the seal stays. Any questions feel free to pm or post.

OK, so the ride report is as such. First, I have none, ZERO, fatbiking experience.This is my first fat bike build and ride. As far as tubeless goes, it went well as described in previous post. I kept both tires at 8 PSI, but that is off my pump and I'm betting those readings are not that accurate with that low of a pressure. But, my front is not tubeless yet and I could definitely tell the difference between the wheels. There was only a dusting of snow on the ground and it was frozen underneath. The tires were not soft enough to eat up all the roots and rocks we have in CT, so it was still a rough ride, especially with the front not being tubeless yet. I am going out this weekend and I will try a lower pressure. I will find my old motocross air gauge for an accurate psi measurement. It appears to have held the air for the ride, but tomorrow morning will really show if that's true. Once I get the parts for the front rebuild, that one will also be tubeless. I agree with most other people the front end is too low on these fatboy's and I will be getting hi-rise bars very soon. But keep in mind, all my bikes are built like this, again this is my MX background keeping me in the position.

For those wanting to know, my tubeless conversion held air perfectly. But on another note, it sounds like the Orange Seal slushed up a little, not frozen, just little bits of slush in the tire. When I spun the tire, I thought I heard brake rub, but I took a closer look/listen and I hear it in the tire. Hope fully this will not be a problem.

We got 2 more inches of snow. I was not planning to ride today, but I guess I will now.

Specialized Fat Boy wheel/tire weights and photos

Another tubeless success story. Set them up with 2.88 gorilla tape. 2 layers per wheel to cover the whole rim. I had to use an air compressor to seat them. Added 8oz of Stan's through the valve stem, aired up to 15 psi, spun them for a few minutes while shaking and turning them. I saw a little Stan's at the weld, and one 2" section of the bead. Let them sit over night and zero loss of pressure this morning.

gcohen, bpd131 and anyone else who has gone tubeless on their FatBoy how far out on the rim did you take your tape? Did you leave in the original rim strip also? What tubeless stem did you use?

Just trying to get a feel for what methods, tapes, valves, etc. have worked...

I run tubeless on all my other MTB's but had not necessarily planned to do so on my FatBoy. However since swapping out the boat anchor tubes that came stock with some much lighter Michelin 2.5-2.8 tubes I had two puncture flats in three rides. Flat repairs on the trail with the fat tires is not fun! Considered going back to the heavy but much burlier stock tubes but I really could tell a big difference with the lighter tubes. So now I am thinking of going tubeless.

The GC tires seem very loose on the Roval rims in fact they almost fall off the rims and with no bead hook at all i had wondered about the success of running tubeless. Are you having good success? Do you have a lot of time running them tubeless yet? Any reason to not go tubeless?

I ran the tape to the hookless bead edge and up higher a little. I used a 4in leading edge tape from Pegasus Automotive that someone else posted somewhere in the fatbike tubeless section, over the standard rim striip, and then trimmed the tape along the bead. I also used the tire/tube combo overnight to make sure everything was stuck down good. The specialized rim does not have a tubeless lead in section where the tire would "pop" in to place, but I have not had any problems at 5-6 psi with burping or anything else. The tape weighs about 100-120 grams and I used a total of 16oz of Orange Seal for both wheels for my set up. But You DO NOT NEED that much sealant, the tires seal almost without sealant.

Specialized Fat Boy wheel/tire weights and photos

I ran 2.88 gorilla tape to the bead edge. I did not put tape up the hookless rim wall. If you use the gorilla tape, you will need two strips to cover edge to edge. The stock rim strip stays in place and the tape goes over it. I used Stan's tubeless valve stems. I've ridden 3 times since converting and haven't put a pump to either tire. I'm running 6/7 psi.

I got my Fatboy Thursday night, took it for a spin on Saturday morning and set it up tubeless Saturday night. I used the 2 strips of Gorilla Tape and 8 oz of Stan's in each wheel. Total weight savings was exactly 1lb. My comp, with XT pedals, weighs 31lbs 14oz, and with the tubeless setup it now weights 30lbs 14oz.

I ran it at 5 psi (I weigh 180lbs) and it worked great, I got better traction than the day before with tubes at 7 psi.

I got my Fatboy Thursday night, took it for a spin on Saturday morning and set it up tubeless Saturday night. I used the 2 strips of Gorilla Tape and 8 oz of Stan's in each wheel. Total weight savings was exactly 1lb. My comp, with XT pedals, weighs 31lbs 14oz, and with the tubeless setup it now weights 30lbs 14oz.

I ran it at 5 psi (I weight 180lbs) and it worked great, I got better traction than the day before with tubes at 7 psi.

Almost exactly my experience too! Same weight difference, savings, final weight, and results!

For those wanting to know, my tubeless conversion held air perfectly. But on another note, it sounds like the Orange Seal slushed up a little, not frozen, just little bits of slush in the tire. When I spun the tire, I thought I heard brake rub, but I took a closer look/listen and I hear it in the tire. Hope fully this will not be a problem.

We got 2 more inches of snow. I was not planning to ride today, but I guess I will now.

Orange was showing a subzero version of it's sealant at Frostbike, keep an eye out for it. It should be showing up soon.